It is not very often that India’s top
diplomat pays glowing tributes to a friendly country on record, knowing very well
that such lavish praise can cause heartburn among other friendly countries.
This is precisely what happened on the evening of November 22 when India’s Foreign
Secretary Ranjan Mathai made an eye-opener of a speech in front of an extremely
select gathering and gave a detailed account of why and how India’s friendship
with Russia is of utmost national importance.

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There were hardly fifty guests present on the
occasion – the sixth Indo-Russian Dialogue promoted by the Observer Research
Foundation and Russkiy Mir. The guest list comprised mainly of top Indian and
Russian diplomats and strategic writers, including the Russian ambassador in
India Alexander Kadakin. I felt proud to be in such company when Mathai
explained in just about half an hour why Russia continues to be India’s
greatest friend.

No, the Indian foreign secretary’s remarks
were not triggered by the fact that India and Russia are celebrating this year
the sixty-fifth year of diplomatic relations between them – a relationship that
even pre-dates India’s independence and reached its zenith during the Soviet
era when the Indo-Soviet Treaty of Friendship was signed in 1971.

A Special and Privileged Strategic
Partnership

Mathai described the Indo-Russian strategic
partnership as “special and privileged” which remains “a key priority” and adds
decisive value to India’s national capacities even today in this dramatically
re-defined post-Cold War world.

Few people would know that Russia is the only
country with which India has a mechanism of annual ministerial review of
defence relations. Also, Russia was the first country with which India started
holding the annual summit, a mechanism that India currently has in place with
just two countries till date – Japan being the other one. Mathai was careful
enough to mention both the points in his speech.

The Indo-Russian strategic partnership has
five major components– (i) political (with sustained, regular dialogue at the
highest level), (ii) counter terrorism cooperation, (iii) defence, (iv) civil
nuclear energy and (v) space. The nature of the Indo-Russian pentagon is such
one never knows which of the five angles will be active on what time and
sometimes all five angles come into play simultaneously.

Mathai spoke at length on the defence aspects
of Indo-Russian ties, a crucial component of bilateral relations as close to 70
percent of India’s military hardware still remains of Russian origin despite
the fact that India has already diversified its defence import basket in a big
way. The Indian foreign secretary made one very important point here. Cognizant
of the disquiet in Russia over Russian bids failing to win contracts many times
in the recent past, Mathai sought to apply a soothing balm and put things in a
mature perspective. Sample his remark: “We often hear rumblings in the media,
both here and in Russia, whenever a big-ticket defence deal does not go the
Russia way or when Russia collaborates with others. I am confident that our
ties are much too mature to be shaped by individual deals in India’s
competitive defence space, or by Russia expanding horizons.”

India knows very well the importance of
Russia as no other country has proven to be such a reliable partner for
hardware. More importantly, India and Russia have moved to a phase of joint
design and development, and of multi-year joint collaboration programmes, with
substantive sharing of critical technologies.

In this context, Mathai came up with a major
remark that should shut up all doubting Thomases and said: “This is what makes
our defence partnership unique and will sustain it over the next decade. I
foresee this relationship diversifying and deepening as both India and Russia
embark on modernizing their defence capabilities.”

The Season of Russia in India

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled
to visit India on December 24, 2012 for the 13th Indo-Russian annual
summit. In October 2012, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Rogozin visited India
to co-chair the Indo-Russian Inter-Governmental Commission, which is one of the
largest and most elaborate mechanisms India has ever had with any country in
the world. Virtually every department of Government of India is present at the
Indo-Russian inter-governmental commissions where the two sides review their
cooperation in every sector, to have candid exchanges and to constructively
address some of the challenges that confront them. In November 2012, the
Russian Defence Minister also visited India to co-chair the military-technical
commission, which assessed the state of health of the robust and highly intense
defence partnership between the two countries.

Putin’s upcoming India visit will impart yet
another fillip to the Indo-Russian bilateral relations, which in this 65th
anniversary year since diplomatic relations were established between Russia and
India after independence is a story of "continuity with enriching
changes”, Mathai remarked. Last but not the least, the Indian foreign secretary
pointed to several big-picture stories of Indo-Russian cooperation.

On the global stage, Russia remains India’s
trusted friend and confidante. “Russia’s overt support for India’s permanent
membership of the UNSC, the NSG, SCO and the APEC are extremely vital for us.
Moreover, Russia has often tried to persuade others while endorsing India’s
credentials. This is an outcome of the unique tradition of political proximity
that we have cultivated over the years,” Mathai observed.

The writer is a New
Delhi-based journalist-author and a strategic analyst.